Gauri Lankesh bounty helped Parshuram Waghmare fix his nose

After shooting Gauri Lankesh, Parshuram Waghmare got a nose job done with the money paid to him for the murder. Sources told Bangalore Mirror that Waghmare had a problem with the nasal passage that he wanted fixed. He paid Rs 4,000 for the minor surgery conducted at Vasudev Hospital in Vijayapura.

After Gauri’s murder on September 5, 2017, Amol Kale (the mastermind) summoned Waghmare to Belagavi and paid him Rs 10,000 for the job. As per the charge-sheet that the Special Investigation Team (SIT) has drawn up, Waghmare told officials that he spent Rs 4,000 on the operation and the remaining Rs 6,000 within a couple of days.

Waghmare’s selection

Amol Kale, the commander of the outfit, was impressed with Waghmare’s ‘determination’ to fight for their cause and had handpicked him from among three youths to shoot Gauri Lankesh.

Waghmare was a B.Com student and didn’t have a steady job; he used to help out his brother-in-law at his steel utensils shop in Vijayapura. He was not regular there either and started then started working for an agency, opening Jan Dhan accounts.

The SIT claims that he was an ardent fan of the Ramayana, Mahabharat, Bhagavad Gita and selected works of Ramkrishna Paramhamsa. He also told the officials that he was very interested in religious matters and was deeply disturbed at the sight of local youths who ‘teased’ girls in his locality. It is also stated that Waghmare was deeply disturbed by the alleged suicide of a 14-year-old boy after he was harassed and assaulted by a group of youths belonging to the minority community in the same locality. The incident reportedly reiterated in his mind that there was no one to protect Hindus.

New Year, Valentine’s day and the Pakistan flag

Waghmare also told the SIT that he was initially associated with the local unit of Sri Ram Sena and used to attend their meetings and religious functions. He also strongly believed that New Year’s and Valentine’s Day celebrations should be banned. He was also arrested in 2012 along with his friends for hoisting a Pakistan flag near the tahasildar’s office in Sindagi (Vijayapura) with the alleged intention of stirring communal tensions. The local police also opened a rowdy sheet in his name after the incident. (He was however acquitted in the case along with five others in July 2017). Waghmare also stated that he later distanced himself from the Sri Ram Sena.

Realtor’s helper and a self-registration stall

A couple of months after he was released on bail in the flag hoisting case, Waghmare joined as a ‘helper’ to a local builder but he soon left the job because he was not being given a proper salary. He has stated that in 2013, there was a religious gathering organised on Durbar ground in Vijayapura and there was a stall seeking youths to register with their names and mobile numbers. Waghmare quickly enrolled himself even though he did not know what he was signing up for.

Waghmare gets a call, impresses Kale

After a few days, he received a call on his number and the speaker identified himself as Sujith (recruiter for Amol Kale in Karnataka). Waghmare met with Sujith in Vijayapura and also clicked his photograph and spoke to him about his outfit’s vision for the plight of Hinduism and its challenges. He was also asked to keep doing meditation and yoga.

In 2016, Sujith introduced Waghmare to Amol Kale, who had succeeded Veerendre Tawade (who was arrested for Narendra Dabholkar’s murder) as the leader of the radical outfit looking to eliminate people working against Hinduism.

Kale later told Sujith that Waghmare, who was given the code name Builder, was very courageous.

‘Event’ Gauri should be carried out like Kalburgi ‘event’

In early 2017, Kale met Waghmare again and told him that he had been assigned to for an important job -- shooting Gauri Lankesh who was a ‘durjan’ (evildoer). Waghmare agreed and was asked to come to Bengaluru for the initial round of recce and rehearsals.

Waghmare told the SIT that he was not aware of the real names of Ganesh Miskin and Amit Baddi (code named Mithun and Govinda) when they met in Bengaluru. He used to address both as ‘Bhai’. Miskin was the bike rider who took Waghmare to Gauri’s residence on September 5 when he shot her dead; Baddi was responsible for collecting their clothes and the gun after the ‘event’ (code name for murder)

“We should ensure that all of us are well prepared and Gauri’s event (murder) should be done as systematically as that of Kalburgi,” Kale had reportedly told them.

Waghmare was arrested from his residence in Vijayapura in June 2018. He later told mediapersons after his court hearing that the SIT was framing him and had offered him Rs 25 lakh to take responsibility for the murder.

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